A couple of years ago I posted a popular entry about Yogurtland in Fullerton. Since that post, the chain of fro-yo shops has expanded from two locations to fifty! Their newest location, accompanied by their new headquarters, is in Anaheim. Hooray! Fro-yo for all (except Dave because he’s a party-pooper and doesn’t like it)!

It’s about time Anaheim got a taste of the delicious frozen Yogurtland treat. Yougurtland’s newest location can be found at 683 N Euclid St. Anaheim, CA 92801. Maybe I’ll see you there, cause you know, that’s where I will be spending all of my spare time.

Here’s some fuzzy video of Republican Assemblyman Mike Duvall bragging about sticking it to a couple different female lobbyists. Oooooh sexy talk. Way to represent the OC with flair Mike! Maybe you should have moved to South Carolina – maybe then you wouldn’t feel the need to resign from office.

Our friends at Mice Age have posted an update by their chief commentator Al Lutz. While often didactic and prone to instructive (rather than constructive) criticism, one cannot help but be fascinated by Mr. Lutz’s juicy tidbits he throws to the drooling Disneyland devotees all over the world. This particular update focuses heavily on D23, Murphy the invisible dragon and the current DCA expansion. However, at the very end of his column he addresses the alleged headaches Disneyland is enduring over this year’s Free-On-Your-Brithday campaign. Essentially he reports the promotion has been one gigantic pain in the ass. Who am I to argue with that? :) He then casually drops this little bomb:

The new campaign for 2010 will allow anyone a free ticket to Disneyland, but only after they complete a certain number of volunteer hours in their community with a Disney approved charity or nonprofit organization.

Say what? Really? That’s sounds like an administrative nightmare!! Still, I really like the idea of encouraging volunteerism and rewarding people with a magical experience. If they really do bring this concept to fruition it will be one of the most unique promotions the Resort has ever seen. I like high concept ideas like this and am interested in seeing it in action.

Would you complete a certain number of volunteer hours to earn a free ticket?

I know times are tough, but I never thought I would see the day when there would be a tattoo shop in a full fledged mall. (Except for maybe in The Simpsons). Today was that day.
Pacific Ink Tattoo has a shop in Laguna Hills Mall between JC Penney and Sears. It looks a little sparse, with from what I could see as only one artist station and some couches, but looked clean.
I bet the clientele from Laguna Woods are loving it.
It makes me wonder if Simon Malls are super desperate for occupants. There were at least 5 other spaces in the mall that were vacant. Nothing against tattoo shops, for if you know me, you know I have a couple tattoos myself, but it just seems a little odd.

According to this piece in the LA Times, it looks like housing builder Lennar Corp is getting a great deal.

Oh yeah, you know the golf course they were contracted to build in exhcange for the right to build a few houses?

Well, never mind that, forget the golf course. Just give us a fairly paltry 58 mil, and we’ll call it even. Well, more than even because now you get to build up to 5,000 housing units on land surrounding the park.

Because that’s exactly what I go to a park for, to be surrounded by thousands of houses.

It would seem at the very least, the hotel workers really don’t like the offer made by Disney to Unite Here 11 (the union representing the people who clean rooms, wash dishes and wait tables at the Resort hotels). The members of the Unite Here 11 union rejected the theme park’s most recent offer of a revised healthcare plan by a whopping 92%.

What this means in the grand scheme of things is we could see an nasty repeat of the 1984 strike where nearly 1800 angry Disneyland Cast Members staged an ugly scene for 22 unpleasant days. I remember what it was like with the media coverage back in the eighties, but can you imagine how the media would pounce all over a strike in these modern times? It’d be like a 24-hour media circus.

Whilst scouring the world wide web for ideas to post about Orange County (after all, these little gems I write don’t just land on my desk you know), I stumbled across this newish housing development called Orange County. The twist is, it’s located in China. Apparently the obsession with Western culture doesn’t just end with Disneyland, but also extends to Disneyland’s home in the real Orange County California. Some genius created a housing development that looks and feels just like living in Orange County — South County to be exact. I’ll leave you to ponder that for just a moment.

At least I assume it’s based on California as there are eight different Orange Counties sprinkled throughout the United States (who knew). You can view some articles and magnificent photos by clicking here, here or here. They have ridiculous pointless guarded gates, just like we do. All the homes have a remarkable sameness about them, just like ours do. They park Hummers in their driveway, just like we do. And if you look at some of these pictures, you’d be hard pressed to distinguish this Chinese OC from an Irving Company development.

What I find stunning about this is, the part of culture they seem to be obsessed with. We have so many other distinct American communities to use as inspiration that don’t look like Woodburry or Portola or Mariner Square. Wouldn’t they do better to copy Colonial Williamsburg or row houses in Boston or even the log cabins of the Northwest, rather than the stucco familiarity of our planned communities? Eh. Maybe not.

OK, folks do we want buses or do we want a monorail? Well the city is gunning for an “elevated system“ to take us to their new transit hub, so our choices are “light-rail buses that would run under a guidewire, automated people-mover cars or a monorail similar to the one at Disneyland”.

Actually, truth be told, I support a people mover system. They are inexpensive to build, easy to maintain, efficient, safe and never break down. Still I’ll take a monorail too – anything to alleviate the nightmarish traffic that currently clogs the arteries of the resort district.

Hippity, HoppityGina @simplynutty: I’m pasting the address to the City of Yorba Linda’s online pdf of their recreation...simplynutty I know it has already happened but do you have info on that flashlight egg hunt? We went to the one in...

AdieuJon I miss the metroblog. too bad they were so restrictive to their authors. made it hard to keep up with a posting...